Question 3: Long-term Objective A

$2,971,093.00
Fiscal Year: 2010

3LA. Conduct a multi-site study of the subsequent pregnancies of 1,000 women with a child with ASD to assess the impact of environmental factors in a period most relevant to the progression of ASD by 2014. IACC Recommended Budget: $11,100,000 over 5 years.

3.L.A. Funding: The recommended budget for this objective was met, but emphasis on this objective should continue in the future.

Progress: The Group is concerned about the lack of continued funding for EARLI. More positively, projects analyzing the previously collected EARLI data are in process. Also, the MARBLES project contributes toward the goal of studying the interaction of genetic and environmental factors beginning during pregnancy, but, since it is not a multi-site study, and is also a continuation of an existing study funded as a pilot under a UC Davis Children's Center grant, funding for MARBLES is coded to 3.S.C, which overlaps somewhat with this objective.

Remaining Gaps, Needs, and Opportunities: A barrier to this type of work is the extremely high cost of building the necessary infrastructure. With MARBLES and previously with EARLI, there has been some progress on infrastructure. It is important to maintain these cohorts where possible, to collect a wide range of samples, and to use them for multiple studies to capitalize on investments made.